Wednesday, July 6, 2011

"For The Good of the Party"

The Party comes first: Soviet dissidents are unloaded at Lubyanka.

"... the Party hands out to you no prospect of reward.... We propose no bargain and we promise nothing. There is a passage in your journal which impressed me. You wrote: `I have thought and acted as I had to. If I was right, I have nothing to repent of; if wrong, I shall pay.... You were wrong, and you will pay, Comrade Rubashov."

Party interrogator Gletkin explains to loyalist Rubashov why the best interests of the Party require his liquidation, from Arthur Koestler's novel Darkness at Noon.

"While an investigation is still underway to determine the facts immediately surrounding the killing, it is my hope that this tragic event will lead to a renewed discussion of the policies that routinely lead to heavily armed and militarized local police invading private homes and a renewed interest in the civil liberties codified in our Bill of Rights," wrote Miller.

In a free society, "law enforcement" wouldn't exist, although the presence of peace officers would be tolerated. Conditionally. In a constitutional republic, public demonstration of distrust toward "law enforcement" would be considered a token of conscientious citizenship. In the American Soyuz, however, criticizing "law enforcement" is akin to engaging in "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda." To that supposed offense, Miller added the even more grievous sin of undermining the interests of the Party. Acting on dubious procedural grounds, the Committee demanded Miller's resignation.

The Bolshevik faction of the Pima County GOP does its duty.

"Mr. Miller's statements regarding the SWAT raid have created serious problems for our elected officials, money raising efforts and have divided the Party," fulminated the commissars in a public rebuke. "Mr. Miller was given repeated opportunities to either mend these fences or resign his position, and has chosen to do neither."

As committee member Brian Brenner explained: "This is solely about the interests of the Pima County Republican Party." Nothing else is -- individual liberty, the preservation of the rule of law, or even the integrity of the constitutional framework for which Republicans express such pious reverence -- is consequential.

"For these people, it's all a big money machine," Miller complained in an interview with Pro Libertate. "We live in Arizona's only Democrat-majority county, and the entrenched Republican establishment here has become comfortable with the status quo. Sure, they never actually win, but they are comfortable and secure. The last thing they want is for people seriously committed to individual liberty to start shaking things up."

Miller, who describes his political agenda as "progressively less government until we get to none," hasn't gotten along well with the torpid, self-satisfied Old Guard in the Pima County Republican Party, and his critics were eager to exploit Miller's measured but critical comments about the killing of Jose Guerena.

"About four days after I sent that e-mail, we had an emergency committee meeting in which a representative of the Tucson Police Officers Association" -- the local police union -- "laid into me for about an hour about how I had called policemen `murderers,'" Miller recounted. "I hadn't actually used that term; I had described the incident as leading to the `wrongful death' of Jose Guerena"

The commissar from the police union reacted to that description by telling Miller, "I never want to hear anything like that coming out of your mouth again." Miller, an Air Force reservist, replied that he would always defend the principle of citizen oversight of the police, just as he supports civilian control of the military.

"You have no right to criticize law enforcement," insisted the police union official. "You've never been in law enforcement." That comment, Miller says, "really lit up the room," startling even some of his critics on the committee -- but not enough, alas, to get them to re-examine their priorities.

"Within 24 hours," Miller recalled to Pro Libertate, "the TPOA contacted every elected Republican, and every Party official, and told them to muzzle me." This demand carried considerable weight in a Party apparatus controlled by people who defer reflexively to anyone clad in the habiliments of the State's punitive priesthood. As Miller puts it, the old-line Republican leadership will always "bend over and grab their ankles when ordered to by the `public safety' unions." This is particularly true in Tucson, where police unions and their allies "scream bloody murder anytime there's hint of cutting back on personnel or benefits."

Tucson was one of the first cities in Arizona to experience the impact of the housing bubble's collapse. Like many other municipalities, Tucson was faced with the deadly combination of plummeting home prices, accumulating foreclosures, and depleted revenue streams. As is the case elsewhere, the highest priority of the political class (including the real estate and financial service interests that had absorbed the local economy during the bubble) was to retain the loyalty of the legions.

Thus in 2009 Tucson unveiled Prop. 200, the "Public Safety First" initiative, a measure that would have required the hiring of hundreds of additional police officers over a five-year period at an estimated price of $157 million. Owing to the huge and growing municipal budget deficit (which had climbed to $51 million by 2010),this most likely would have required cutting back, or abolishing outright, every other program or "service" that didn't involve "public safety" -- that is, the exercise of government-licensed compulsion on behalf of the wealth-consuming class.

"People don't feel safe in the city of Tucson," quavered Colin Zimmerman of the Tucson Association of Realtors (TAR), which promoted Prop. 200. "They don't feel safe in their homes. They don't feel safe in the schools. Businesses don't feel safe and don't want to relocate here."

Brandon Patrick, who organized the ultimately successful effort to defeat the measure, insisted that the TAR was peddling the purest piffle. "The suggestion that there's more need than ever before for police is nonsense," Brandon told the Tucson Weekly shortly before the election. In fact, crime rates in Tucson -- as was the case elsewhere in Arizona -- were down dramatically

When Tucson's tax victims refused to consent to another assault on what remained of their wealth, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords intervened on behalf of the armed tax-feeders by arranging for the city to receive a $12.3 federal grant from the "Justice" Department's "Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Program" -- which is why the same police union that wants Brian Miller's head on a charger endorsed the incumbent Democrat for re-election in 2010. (It's also worth noting that Clarence Dupnik, the Sheriff who presided over the SWAT team that murdered Jose Guerena, is also a Democrat.)

As is the case in nearly every significant American city, Tucson's municipal oligarchy grew fat during the Fed's housing bubble, and is now desperate to keep the "Public Safety" bubble inflated by any means necessary. This helps explain why Miller's carefully modulated public criticism of the needless death of Jose Guerena, and militarization of police in general, provoked the wrath of Tucson's ruling caste: Parasites of that kind are increasingly dependent on federal "public safety" subsidies.

It simply won't do for a Republican leader to abet doubts about the wisdom of the architects of the Homeland Security State, and the mouth-breathing armed minions who carry out their orders. This is true even when a pack of armored plunderers invades a home, guns down a young father in front of his terrified wife and toddler, and then deliberately allows the victim to bleed to death when timely medical assistance would have saved his life.

Despite the escalating campaign to oust him as chairman of the Pima County GOP, Miller makes a compelling case that he's accomplished exactly what he was elected to do.

"I was elected to raise funds, bring in young voters, and expand our outreach to Hispanics," Miller told Pro Libertate. "We've had great success on all three fronts. What's happening now is in part an ideological clash, and perhaps more importantly the manifestation of a generational divide between more libertarian-oriented young professionals and the old-line conservatives who have traditionally run the party" -- what might be called the "Judge Smails" constituency.

As anyone familiar with the film Caddyshack will recall, Judge Elihu Smails was the embodiment of insular, conformist, country-club authoritarianism. The essence of what passed for his character was revealed in an off-hand remark the Judge made to Danny Noonan -- the film's central character -- while delivering a patronizing rebuke to the flawed but essentially well-meaning young man: "I've sentenced boys younger than you to the gas chamber. Didn't want to do it -- I felt I owed it to them."

There is a kind of person on whom the irony of that comment would be lost. It is the same kind of person who, in contemplating the murder of Jose Guerena, would instinctively sympathize with the assailants, rather than with the victim, his traumatized widow, and his fatherless children. That personality type -- to which I've given the name "punitive populist" -- is well-represented in Republican politics not only in Pima County, but nation-wide.

Such people are disinclined to tolerate so much as a tremor of principled activism on behalf of individual liberty -- even when, as is the case in Pima County, acting on principle would also provide a partisan advantage.

It's interesting to consider this question: What if, rather than condemning police militarization in principle, Brian Miller had used the death of Jose Guerena to fashion a partisan attack against Sheriff Dupnik? If he had insisted that this was a case of power being in the "wrong hands," rather than an object lesson in the evil of State power as such, Miller most likely wouldn't have become the target of the purge. Instead, he committed a sacrilege against the sanctified purveyors of lethal violence, and must now be expelled in disgrace --- for the good of the Party.

While supplies last, I'm sending a copy of Global Gun Grab to anyone who offers a donation of $10 or more. Please use the PayPal button below, or contact me directly (WNGrigg[at]msn[dot]com) for snail mail instructions. Thanks so much!

I discussed Brian Miller's confrontation with the Bolshevik faction of the Pima County GOP during the second hour of last week's edition of Pro Libertate Radio on the Liberty News Radio Network. Go here for the archives.

19 comments:

It will not surprise you that the TPOA has "made autonomous relationships" (whatever that means) with the AFL-CIO and the CWA, both heavy hitters in terms of donations to the Democratic Party (26 & 13 respectively).

Off topic, but interesting nonetheless, is with all the recent whining about the Koch Brothers (#87 and leaning toward 1 red elephant), there is nothing but silence regarding how our confiscated wealth is used to support the Democratic Party by the likes of our state/county/municipal "employees" (#2) and "educators" (#4).

The "Frum Forum," named for the former Bush propaganda writer, just ran a piece warning loyal Party members that Ron Paul supporters like Miller are infiltrating the Party and talking bad about our police state. Oh no!

The article claims that Jose Guerena had been "linked to a home invasion ring." This is nothing but the parroting of an unsubstantiated smear by the sleazeball police union lawyer representing the murderers who killed Guerena. No evidence has been presented that Guerena had anything to do with any crime.

Note well, none of these Party apparatchiks will actually challenge the substance of Miller's statements. I think Miller was, if anything, too kind in his assessment of what happened to Jose Guerena. Murder is murder is murder. But where murder is the state's prerogative, it is not to be called by its name.

God bless you, Brian Miller. You need to join --nay, take over-- the Pima County Libertarian Party, an equally sclerotic, useless organization, even by Libertarian Party standards, one that is all ale-induced mutual verbal masturbation and no action (for proof of this, check out their website, such as it is. 'Nuff said.)

The commissar from the police union reacted ... by telling Miller, "I never want to hear anything like that coming out of your mouth again."

Brian Miller must be a man blessed with incredible, perhaps superhuman self-restraint. Had I been in his shoes and had that blast of verbal flatulence been targeted at me, a donut-eating, steroid-ridden, drug-dealing, senior citizen-assaulting, child-murdering tax parasite would have wound up in a terminal coma in the ICU at University Medical Center.

Who knows maybe some police officers will have nasty accidents that will require instant legistlation along with posters claiming MIller 'killed them'.

Maybe military Mark Kelly will get elected. There could be a new pro-active policing programme called 'Righteous Thunder' which would call for 1 in every 10 homes getting a 'home invasion - security sweep' or something.

Perhaps you could build another room and have a cop living there full-time - might boost the construction market

I long ago came to the conclusion that the Democratic and Republican parties no longer exist in a traditional sense. What we have now are Statists and Anti-Statists. Statists are comprised of the current Democrat and Republican parties and are filled with people who adhere to the philosophy of the State uber alles.Anti-Statists are those who are more Libertarian in thier beliefs and are more aligned with the philosophies behind the original founding of the United States. The gulf that exists between Statists and Anti-Statists will continue to deepen until an ultimate political or martial confrontation is inevitable. Prepare well and be ready to survive.

"You have no right to criticize law enforcement," insisted the police union official. "You've never been in law enforcement."

This sort of evil absurdity is telling. I would have replied, "Do I need to be a thief and rob someone in order to understand what theft is? Extort someone through threats and intimidation to recognize a gangster?"

I guess the main requirement to qualify to become a Pima County LEO is the ability to blow your nose on the sidewalk and scratch your balls at one and the same time. (Takes real skill. Fail this test and they won't let you into the club.)

Let's keep going.....

"You have no right to criticize murder. You've never been a murderer."

"You have no right to criticize child molestation. You've never been a child molester."

Well, we knew people who commit law enforcement were morally challenged. This quotation from their Union Representative, as cited by Mr. Miller, proves they are also mentally deficient. As in cretins.

Perhaps, we have no right to liken their male members to shriveled walnuts, either, since none of us is thus afflicted.

Liberanter, I see from the link to your local Libertarian Party web site that they must be moving in lockstep with the party in Idaho. Sigh!... I love those guys dearly but for the most part the sessions are mostly to encourage one another and for that I can't fault them. The last time I visited back in June the number of people attending had almost doubled so that was a positive sign. The web site, both in Pima and Idaho, seem to be almost an afterthought. Like an old sack of fertilizer lying dormant at the back of the potting shed.

Hope I do not offend Mr. Grigg, and if this is not okay with you please delete it.

Brian Miller has launched a campaign to take pledges, and I have published that on another website in an article on his situation. The org with which I work will be emailing that to thousands of people on Monday, July 11, 2011, in hopes of helping Brian Miller accomplish his work for freedom in Pima County, Arizona. Here is the link for the story itself, along with video of his speech at the Oath Keepers muster in Tucson on Memorial Day, May 30, 2011, to honor Jose Gurena's service with the U.S. Marines and to simultaneously make a public stand against the policy of using SWAT for routine police work. Brian Miller is an Oath Keeper and was happy to speak at our muster.

I guess the main requirement to qualify to become a Pima County LEO is the ability to blow your nose on the sidewalk and scratch your balls at one and the same time. (Takes real skill. Fail this test and they won't let you into the club.)

I can assure you that meeting such a requirement is AN IMPOSSIBILITY for any LEO candidate anywhere in Pima County.

No, the only prerequisites to being hired by any branch of government in the state of Arizona, whether "law enforcement"-related or not, are:

1. Display not a hint of ability to think critically.

2. Possess a truculent, arrogant attitude that demonstrates that you hold every single one of your fellow citizens in the utmost contempt. For those applicants applying for "law enforcement" positions, the ability to indulge in unchecked psychotic violence is essential.

Though not a specific requirement, the inability to read, write, or speak coherent English as one's native language is also a very strong plus. In fact, be advised that to demonstrate actual proficiency in English anywhere in Arizona is an almost certain way of disqualifying oneself for employment, in or out of the government sector.

As you may know, I have visited over 40 countries in my life, and I have found the same everywhere: When a person, usually after dropping out of school, does not possess enough education or mental capacity to earn an honest living in the job marketplace, they become one of two things: a policeman, or a Protestant minister. (For some reason, Catholic priests seem mostly to be pretty smart - I have no idea why. Both are lazy bums, though.) These two parasitical occupations are so undemanding of any intelligence - requiring only the ability to follow orders and regurgitate mindless dogma - that they attract the bottom-of-the-barrel mental dregs of humanity.

In the case of the overfed tax-feeders, (reminiscent of pink, bristled hogs,) perhaps in Arizona the desert sun fries what few brain cells remain, and in Idaho, the thin mountain air causes ganglial apoptosis to run rampant among these already neuronally-challenged folk.

In any case, when one is addressed as "Grghhnnftkk!" by one of these jewels of Satan, It is best not to laugh. They have guns, and since they are unable to speak English, they use those in order to conduct conversations with the rest of humanity.

One wonders how they ever manage to remember to drop their pants BEFORE they take a shit, and not after.

Perhaps that is why many of them in recent years have taken to dressing in brown or black, instead of blue.

The phenomenon of these incoherent, mouth-breathing turds no doubt will make the Pentecostals happy; it proves Darwin was wrong. Here we are witnessing devolution in action, as these lard-butts descend from human, through gorilla, and finally to pond-scum.

Demopublicans and Republicrats are two cheeks on the same ass and if voting changed anything it would be illegal by tomorrow morning. Enjoy the collapse, get a good seat and some popcorn and watch the fireworks.

Reading Liberranter and Lemuel's comments about the low-standard of English spoken in the Police Force and Arizona:

"It is best not to laugh. They have guns, and since they are unable to speak English, they use those in order to conduct conversations with the rest of humanity."

"In fact, be advised that to demonstrate actual proficiency in English anywhere in Arizona is an almost certain way of disqualifying oneself for employment, in or out of the government sector."

It makes Jared Loughner's statements seem all the more relevant:Secondly, my hope - is for you to be literate! If you're literate in English grammar, then you comprehend English grammar. The majority of people, who reside in District-8, are illiterate - hilarious. I don't control your English grammar structure, but you control your English grammar structure. "

"It is best not to laugh. They have guns, and since they are unable to speak English, they use those in order to conduct conversations with the rest of humanity."

by making mention of the fact that the leading cause of death in the U.S. among "law enforcement" types is self-inflicted gunshot wounds. In other words, these oxygen-thieving oafs aren't any more proficient with weapons than they are at communicating in simple English. Cowards that they are, however, they have an innate knack for being able to concentrate their heavy artillery on "soft targets" while somehow ensuring that they themselves survive to continue polluting the human gene pool.

And once the 'soft-target' has been acquired the LEOs [ Leo the Lion?] show their language-proficiency via words like 'justifiable asituational threat nullification' which basically means one may shoot anything that may at present or in the future possibly be construed to represent a threat - which of course is anything.

I guess I colud have thrown in 'assymetrical' which is one of those words which people react to without really having any idea what it means.